It is finally done. After some exiting days I moved my web site, blog and domain to my own server. A few seconds I was informed about the succeeded the domain transfer. Now I am just waiting that all the DNS are updated. Since everything is already set up and prepared for the domain name, the master plan is accomplished.

1. Got root
2. Install VMware
3. Install a Windows Server 2008
4. Move my existing site to the new server

In to make sure such a relocation goes off without a hitch just follow a few simple rules

1. Terminate the contract with our current provider, best in written form or by fax
2. Inform your current provider about the domain transfer
3. Request the domain transfer with your new provider
4. Set up your Web applications on the new site - test it!
5. Make the site listening to the domain name to be moved.
6. Make sure you have some mail server set up already listening to the domain name being moved.

That's all.

Here we go...

You probably run into the same problem that Windows Server 2008 won't be able to recognize the virtual hard disk you have planned to installed it on. Get the corresponding SCSI drivers as floppy image from the VMware site. Select the image and connect the drive.

Now say 'Browse' and choose drive 'A:' - don't forget: After selecting the .flp image you also have to connect the drive. Otherwise Windows cannot read the device.

Click on 'Next' and after a few seconds the hard disk will be found. The currently available drivers for Windows Server 2003 seem to work fine also for Windows Server 2008.

Installing the VMware Tools might be a good idea. You can find the image at /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso or just install them from the VMware management console's menu. While the image is mounted go to 'Device Manager' and install the drivers for the network adapter which probably does not work yet.

Now some tweaking for the IP, gateway and DNS servers and one more step in my master plan achieved.

1. Got root
2. Install VMware
3. Install a Windows Server 2008
4. Move my existing site to the new server

In a previous post I told about my master plan after gaining my new root server:

1. Got root
2. Install VMware
3. Install a Windows Server 2008
4. Move my existing site to the new server

After almost 16 hours my request for my own RIPE subnet was approved. Now I can concentrate on the next point: Installing VMware. Since I want to set up this machine for virtualization I have to perform a few steps first. That way, this post will be mostly about my fight with Debian Linux which is the host system.

After logging in, I just realize that updating the package database might not the worst idea. Consequently I do so and install some Norton Commander like tool for real men

apt-get update 
apt-get install mc  

This actually makes things much easier.

Now, I have to activate IP forwarding in /etc/sysctl.conf by the adding

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

and bringing the additional IP on the host system by adding

up ip add 192.168.1.1/29 dev eth0

to /etc/network/interfaces. Additionally, I have to add some host-route (by using my gateway 192.168.0.1) so my new subnet is reachable by adding

pointopoint 192.168.0.1

to eth0 in /etc/network/interfaces. Installing iproute by a

apt-get install iproute

restarting the interface by calling

/etc/init.d/network restart

finally makes my IP ping-able. Quite a fight so far if you don't do this on a regular base. Additionally I installed the powersaved package and reconfigured several settings to increase the performance in /etc/powersave.

I just got the tip to put my virtual machines to the separate disc. Since I have one spare 400GB disc. I have to create some partition and to format it.

cfdisk /dev/sdb
mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdb1

Let's create some directory for the virtual machines and mount the disc

mkdir VMs
mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb1 /Vms

Now some final tweak at /etc/fstab by adding

/dev/sdb1 /VMs et3 defaults 0 0

and I am done.

Finally I start installing the VM. I was pointed to some German How-To written by Till Brehm which is includes quite detailed instructions.

Some prerequisites are required before I start. I do the required 220 MB update by

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` libx11-6 libx11-dev x-window-system-core x-window-system xspecs libxtst6 psmisc build-essential

VMware can be downloaded from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/. I skip the management console since I will use it on my Windows workstation and focus only on the server and management interface binaries using:

wget http://download3.vmware.com/...
tar xvz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

Now, I simply accept the defaults for the following installation. only at one point I had to tell the script that my virtual machines will be located at /VMs. No I have to continuing with the management interface

The Web-based managmeent interface seems to work perfectly after installing.

After installing the management console on Windows I run into some trouble. During compilation of the corresponding modules, the VMware script was not able to start the inetd service. Therefore, I was not able to connect to the VMware server. After restarting the service manually it worked perfectly and I set up my virtual machine.

So far, I've reached the next level of my master plan.

Go and get some good webcam (I use the Microsoft LifeChat NX-6000), navigate to the Skype user settings (e.g. in to C:\Program Files\Users\[YourWindowsProfile]\AppData\Roaming\Skype\[YourSkypeProfile]\), open config.xml and follow the instruction by Phillip Torrone, seeking for the <Video> tag. I am using Skype version 3.6.0.248 and the configuration file looks quite different now. However, adding the <CaptureWidth> and <CaptureHeight> tag works fine as well with this version since it was especially introduced with version 3.6. At the end your configuration file should look similar to this one.

I re-started Skype and it looks like the other side can see me in 640x480 now.

"The Visual Linq query builder is a Visual Studio 2008 addin. It's a designer that helps you create Linq to Sql queries in your application. Both C# and VB projects are supported."

It was developed during an internship at Microsoft by Simon Ferquel and Johanna Piou.

Read more on here and get the bits from there.

Today, I finally got my root server. So I performed my very first root login for a long time.

The master plan however is quite simple

1. Got root
2. Install VMware
3. Install a Windows Server 2008
4. Move my existing site to the new server

So, my very first action was to request a new RIPE subnet. Unlike in your private LAN, you cannot simply assign randomly some IP to any machine. Nothing else I can do until the subnet is assigned.

duck-techfest originally uploaded by Franck Lassagne

I found this photo of our duck (on it's burrow model) at TechFest 2008 on Flickr. The model is of a manx shearwater burrow from Skomer Island, UK showing our deployment of a wireless sensor network.

Vista Flickr Uploader is a small tool I found at CodePlex to quickly push a whole bunch of pictures to your Flickr account.

Pros: Allows you to select a whole bunch of images at once, allows to assign the images to a previously created set and remembers the folder you picked pictures from the last time.

Cons: Takes some time to start since it validates the verifies application requirements every time, does not allow you to create title or description of the photos and finally the code is under LGLP - no way that I touch it.

Nice, but some room for improvements.

Sometimes it is maybe necessary to bring some order into your unit tests in Visual Studio. Indeed, this is not really the idea of unit testing, however it might be necessary for a variety of reasons. Facing this issue, I had to search the MSDN documentation for a while.

I was desperately looking for some syntax like:

[TestMethod(Order = 1)]

However, the only way to bring some order in your tests is, by creating some ordered tests in addition to your unit tests.

To do so, you first create a set of unit tests. In my case, some of the tests should be only executed after other run successfully. Otherwise the result might look like:

Now we create a new test project called Order Test:

When opening the project you actually can arrange the order of the previously written unit tests:

Running the test then is possible by selecting the test from the Test View window. Your tests will actually only appear as one entry in the list but you will see that all the selected tests run successfully - in the correct order.

Some words on the Secure Development Lifecycle related to Web 2.0 by Bryan Sullivan.